Galusha A. Grow
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
politician, lawyer, writer and businessman, and was Speaker
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
of the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from 1861 to 1863. He was defeated for reelection in 1862. He remained the last sitting House Speaker to be defeated until Tom Foley
Tom Foley
Thomas Stephen Foley was the 57th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1989 to 1995. He represented Washington's 5th congressional district for 30 years as a Democratic member from 1965 to 1995....
lost his seat in the Republican landslide
Republican Revolution
The Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94 is what the media dubbed Republican Party success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate...
of 1994.
Early years
Grow was born Aaron Galusha Grow in Ashford, ConnecticutAshford, Connecticut
President George Washington, returning from his tour of the country in the fall of 1789, was chagrined to be involuntarily abandoned in the village on a Sunday...
. His given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s were the suggestions of an aunt living in Vermont, who was visiting Grow's mother when he was christened: "Aaron" was the aunt's husband's name, and "Galusha" was the surname
Jonas Galusha
Jonas Galusha was the sixth and eighth Governor of Vermont for two terms in the early 19th century.Galusha was born in Norwich, Connecticut, and migrated to Shaftsbury, Vermont, in 1775. He had a distinguished record in the American Revolution, fighting in the Battle of Bennington in 1777...
of a governor of Vermont
Governor of Vermont
The Governor of Vermont is the governor of the U.S. state of Vermont. The governor is elected in even numbered years by direct voting for a term of two years; Vermont and bordering New Hampshire are the only states to hold gubernatorial elections every two years, instead of every four...
she admired. His family called him Galusha when he was growing up, and before Grow was a teenager he had started writing his name with his given names reversed. He was educated at Franklin Academy in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 42,238 people, 16,529 households, and 11,785 families residing in the county. The population density was 51 people per square mile . There were 21,829 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...
, and later, at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in November 1847, and then began his law practice. Aaron Grow is a 7th cousin several times removed of President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
U.S. House
Grow ran as a Democrat in the 1850 elections, and served as a member of that party during the 32nd32nd United States Congress
The Thirty-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1851 to March 3, 1853, during the third and...
and 33rd Congresses
33rd United States Congress
The Thirty-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1853 to March 3, 1855, during the first two years...
, and part of the 34th Congress
34th United States Congress
The Thirty-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1855 to March 4, 1857, during the last two years...
. He switched parties in the wake of President Pierce's signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
.
He ran as a Republican for the 1856 elections, and remained a member of that party for the rest of his political career.
During the 35th United States Congress
35th United States Congress
The 35th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1857 to March 3, 1859, during the first two years of James...
, on February 5, 1858, he was physically attacked by Democrat Laurence M. Keitt
Laurence M. Keitt
Laurence Massillon Keitt was a South Carolina politician who served as a United States Congressman. He is included in several lists of Fire-Eaters—men who adamantly urged the secession of southern states from the United States, and who resisted measures of compromise and reconciliation,...
in the House chambers, leading to a brawl between northerners and southerners.
He was re-elected during the 1858 elections and before the end of the 36th Congress
36th United States Congress
The Thirty-sixth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1859 to March 4, 1861, during the third and fourth...
South Carolina had voted to secede from the Union.
After Grow was again re-elected, the recently-elected President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
called the 37th Congress
37th United States Congress
The Thirty-seventh United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1861 to March 4, 1863, during the first two...
into session on July 4; in a chamber down by almost 60 from the 237 present in the previous session, Grow was nominated by Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens , of Pennsylvania, was a Republican leader and one of the most powerful members of the United States House of Representatives...
to be the Speaker of the House
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
, winning the job with little fanfare over the only other nominee, Francis Preston Blair
Francis Preston Blair
Francis Preston Blair, Sr. was an American journalist and politician.-Biography:Blair was born at Abingdon, Virginia. He moved to Kentucky, graduated from Transylvania University in 1811, took to journalism, and was a contributor to Amos Kendall's paper, the Argus, at Frankfort...
.
Although events of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
dominated—the First Battle of Bull Run
First Battle of Bull Run
First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas , was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the City of Manassas...
occurred only two weeks after the 37th Congress was called into session—under Grow's speakership several other major acts of Congress were passed and signed into law, particularly the Morrill Land Grant College Act (passed House June 17, 1862), Pacific Railway Act authorizing land grants to encourage the construction of the transcontinental railroad
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
, and the Homestead Act
Homestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
, which in over a century resulted in the establishment of 1.6 million homesteads.
Grow, a supporter of the Radical Republicans, was defeated in his reelection bid in 1862.
After his Speakership
Grow was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864 and 1868.He moved to Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
in 1871, and that year became president of what became known as the International - Great Northern Railroad
International-Great Northern Railroad
The International – Great Northern Railroad was a railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Texas. It was created on September 30, 1873, when International Railroad and Houston and Great Northern Railroad merged....
, a position he held until 1875. He then returned to Pennsylvania and the practice of law from 1875 to 1894.
Grow returned to the United States Congress as a member at-large from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's At-large congressional district
Pennsylvania elected its United States Representatives At-Large on a general ticket for the first and third United States Congresses. General ticket representation was prohibited by the 1842 Apportionment Bill and subsequent legislation, most recently in 1967 ....
from 1894 to 1903; was the chairman of the committee on education in the 56th Congress.
Grow resided in Glenwood, Pennsylvania from 1903 until his death at age 84. A biography of Galusha Grow, Galusha A. Grow: Father of the Homestead Law, was written by James T. Du Bois and Gertrude S. Mathews
and published by Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
in 1917.
External links
- Galusha Grow from Mr. Lincoln's White House, a website of the Lehrman InstituteLewis LehrmanFor the Texas judge, see Debra Lehrmann.Lewis E. "Lew" Lehrman is an investment banker who actively supports the ongoing study of American history from a conservative perspective. He was presented the National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2005 for his scholarly contributions...
- Grow, Galusha Aaron (1823-1907) from The Political GraveyardThe Political GraveyardThe Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 224,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information.-History:...